1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to media playback and more specifically to video bookmarks to aid in pausing and resuming video playback.
2. Introduction
Video consumption has traditionally been a very passive activity. In the beginning era of video, viewers watched a movie when the theater decided to show it. Later, the invention of television allowed viewers to watch a television program in the comfort of their home, but viewers were still forced to watch programs as they were broadcast. With the advent of video cassette tape technology such as Betamax or VHS, viewers were able to record and watch video content on demand, but tethered to locations that included bulky video cassette players and viewers were tied to physical removable media. Recent years have seen rapid changes. Video content is now available on many devices, portable and otherwise. Video content can be stored on removable media, such as DVD or USB flash drives, or on internal storage, such as a hard drive or flash memory in an iPod, or streamed via a network, such as to a computer or cellular phone. Video content is available and portable nearly anywhere in some form or another. TiVO and other digital video recorders allow viewers to automatically record broadcasts and even pause live television.
With all the progress made in distributing and presenting video content on individual devices, little progress has been made to free content which is limited to a particular device or format and provide continuous playback across devices and formats. Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a way for users to mark and shift video content from device to device freely and easily.